koreawikiaorg-20200213-history
Korean food
Korean food is quite unique with many dishes heavily relying upon the use of red pepper paste, garlic, ginger, meat and vegetables. You can go here for a big list of korean foods. Click here for a list of pages with Korean recipes. The Main Players and Side Dishes *'Kimchi' 김치 is the unique staple dish of Korea and is said to stave off anything from SARS to cancer. Its usually made from cabbage that is pickled, fermented, spiced, garnished, buried underground, forgotten, rediscovered, flogged, mashed, seven times cursed, seven times sealed, stripped and chopped. *'Rice' 밥 Combine with Kimchi and good fortune will be yours. *'Red Pepper' 고추 Koreans love spicy stuff. And most Korean food gets its kick from red peppers. Often its made into a paste called gochu jang 고추장. *'Ramen' 라면 Its pronounced more like 'lamyun' around here. Spicier than the stuff back home. *'Pickled Radishes' Koreans love pickled radishes as a side dish. The type served in the kimbap and fast food places is usually white or bright yellow and always gross. With traditional meals you'll get radish cubes, sometime small whole radishes with part of the greens left on them, or radish shreds. This type of radishes is pickled like cabbage kimchi with lots of chile. Another variety is "mul kimchi" which has little or no chile, doesn't take long to prepare and comes with its own edible broth. *'Bean sprouts' There's absolutely nothing interesting to say about bean sprouts. *'Ddeok (Rice cake)' *'Seafood' Foods Common in Korea Click on the names to go to a Google Image search for each food. *'Sam Gyup Sal' 삼겹살 sliced pork belly that is cooked on a little grill right in front of you. You dip it in sesame sauce and wrap it in lettuce and you're good to go. *'Boshin Tang' 보신탕 Dog meat soup. Supposed to enhance male virility and get you through the 'dog days' of summer. *'Bokum Bap' 볶음밥 Korean fried rice is different from the Chinese type - less greasy for one. Small pieces of vegetables are added - perhaps carrots, potatoes, onions, green onions, etc. Often you'll find ham or some spam-type meat, also added in very small pieces. *'Kim Bap' 김밥 Like a sushi roll but no raw fish (though fish cake("Odeng") is often used. Some rice, eggs, ham, vegetables and who knows what else all rolled into some dried seaweed paper and sliced up. Very cheap. You can live off this stuff *'Kamja Tang' 감자탕 The name means 'potato soup' but this soup is probably more remarkable for the big ass meat pork bones that are in it. You can pull the meat off the bones and dip it in a little sauce *'ShabuShabu' 샤브샤브In keeping with the cook-it-yourself nature of Korea food, this is a soup where you must cook thin little slices of beef and vegetables in the boiling broth. Originally a Mongolian dish, it's rumored that it was a quick efficient way to feed the troops during Ghengis Khan's days. *'Kim Chee Jigae' 김치찌개 A spicy stew made from kimchi, meat is usually added, pork and sometimes tuna *'Seollung Tang' 설렁탕 A mild soup made with beef bone broth and some beef, green onions, and translucent noodles in it. *'Soon Dae' 순대 Blood Sausages, akin to black pudding. Tastes much better than it sounds. Gut segments containing blood and chap chae noodles (Yam starch noodles) *'Bi Bim Bap' 비빔밥 Some rice mixed with vegetables, a fried egg, and some hot red pepper sauce. May or may not come with small pieces of beef. The idol-sot/i version is cooked in a stone dish and results in a crispy rice shell forming where the rice touches the dish. *'Curry' 카래 Korean style yellow curry stew. *'Mandu' 만두 Dumplings. Either fried (군만두) or soggy (물만두). Check out the movie Old Boy for crazy mandu-related hi-jinx *'Raw Fish' 회 You can go to a 회 restaurant and get all sorts of slimy monstrosities from writhing strips of live squid to whole live octopi. (Again see the film Oldboy for live octopi in action) Also there are a lot of Japanese style sushi places in the trendy districts. *'Dong Cass' 돈까스 Fried cutlet. Either pork or fish or something. I think this food is borrowed from the Japanese "don-katsu." *'Mayoon Tang' 매운탕 The name means spicy soup and its pretty accurate *'Soon Doo Boo' 순두부 And a soon du bu to you too (cymbal crash). 'Du Bu' is Korean for Tofu and this is a spicy soup with big chunks of silken white tofu in it. Though some restaurants serve a very bland version of Sundubu, not much more than tofu in hot water, add your own flavourings from the side. *'Gyeran Tang' 계란탕 This is an egg soup. If you don't like eggs, you should steer clear of this. Why? Because its an egg soup, moron. *'Twee Gim' 튀김 This is fried stuff. Usually shrimp and assorted vegetables. I think its the same as Japanese tempura, but a I could be wrong. Can you guess what 감자 튀김 is? Yeah, just french fries. *'Hot Dog' A corn dog. Go figure. *'Bulgogi' 불고기 beef in a sauce that is amazingly neither bitter nor spicy. A pretty foreigner-friendly food. *'Fried Chicken' 후라이드 치킨 Tired of that healthy crap? Jump on the heart attack wagon. Koreans love fried chicken. There's KFC and Popeyes, but also a lot of domestic brands. *'Ddok Boggi' 떡볶이 Rice cake 'rods' in spicy sauce, commonly sold by street vendors. You can buy the ddeokbokk ddeok in the market and make your own - try it boiled in soup, or with something tasty like peanut sauce (not a Korean concept for this Korean food item) *'Dwenjang Jjigae' Fermented soy bean soup, think a richer more pungent version of miso, made with vegetables, tofu and sometimes meat. *'Jajangmyun' 자장면 Adapted from a Chinese noodle dish, the sauce is made with black beans, minced pork and vegetables. *'Cajun Chicken Salad' 케이준 치킨 샐러드 This is some fried chicken on a salad covered in honey mustard sauce. You know, just like they do it down on the bayou. Korean Booze *'Soju' 소주 The original memory eraser *'Baek Sae Ju' 백세주 This is a nutty flavored liquor. The name means '100 Years Liquor.' Koreans often mix it half-and-half with Soju to make '50 Years Liquor.' *'Makkeolli' 막걸리 This is is a cloudy, tan-colored liquor that is usually served in a big bowl and drunken in smaller bowls. Lord, it will get you wasted. *'Dongdong Ju' 동동주 Similar to Makkeolli. In fact, I don't know what the difference is. *'Korean Beer' 맥주 There are a few really common brands: Cass, OB, and Hite. Out of these, I prefer Hite, but they're all very mass-produced budweiser clones. Also available are Hite Stout and Red Rock which attempt to be somewhat more flavorful and succeed very marginally. If Cass is too classy for you, you can try the knock-off brand Cash.